I have a Mits 65815, a CRT RP HDTV. The suported formats are 480i, 480p, and 1080i. I read another thread here that seemed to imply that RP CRTs just upconvert 480i and 480p signals to 1080i. However in the case of the 65815, there are seperate memorized settings for SD (480i/480p) and HD (1080i) for alignment (green baseline), convergence (blue and red), plus other adjustments I don't mess with. These adjustments have to be done twice, once, for SD, and again for HD, and the stored and displayed values are independent.

In addition, when watching SD video (480i broadcast or 480p from DVD), the picture quality is much better than watching SD on any pixel based HDTV (DLP, LCD, LCOS, Plasma, ...).

SD DVDs at 480p look so nice that I'm having trouble convincing my wife we should get a blu-ray player (we've tried a couple blu-ray players and she doesn't see much difference with typical blu-ray movies).

So it's my impression that the 65815 directly displays 480p (line doubling 480i) and 1080i, by toggling between two different sweep rates and beam widths.

If anyone knows for sure, please respond.

If any one is curious, the code to set the baseline "green" grid for alignment is menu, then 2459, wait for green grid, then press 4. From this menu, red and blue can still be accessed for convergence adjustments. As noted, this procedure has to be done twice, once for SD (480i/480p) and again for HD (1080i).

You certainly have one of the better models of 1080i capable CRT tvs since it automatically switches between scanning 480i and 1080i. No digital technology has been able to match the PQ of units such as yours for both standard and high resolution sources.
As far as 480p/60 concerened I am quite sure that it interlaces every other frame and then uses its standard 480i logic and scanning functions.

I recently found out that its native modes are 480p/60, and 1080i/60. Two sets of parameters need to be adjusted in order to calibrate the TV.

I wish my set scanned at 480i or p, 720p as well!